art and education

check this out here

funniest book ever- Memoirs of a Goldfish

We read this book at Zandbroz and we were laughing out loud- it is hilarious!

We then checked it out of the library... but we definitely want to own this one.

Christmas is coming...

new muppet movie... are you excited?

Fall Festival 2011

Yesterday we went to the Fall Festival and had tons of fun- just like we do every year!

The weather was warm, the sun was out, and the ground was dry(a huge plus for this event).

The boys are now on year 3 of wearing these Halloween shirts- I guess we're getting our money's worth! :) I wonder how many more years they will fit?

After we left we checked out a couple international grocery stores... very interesting...

I think John had a good birthday.

Happy Birthday John Porter

Today was John's birthday. He and the boys spent last night camping out with the cub scouts and got home at about 8:30am. Mary Beth and I were eagerly waiting with all the presents ready. The kids have been so excited for this day because they knew he would love his gifts!

Whenever Mickey would ask John what he wanted the last couple months, John would reply: a red pick up truck.... so Mickey decided to give him a toy one to be funny. :)

I got him a new trimmer- he's been wanting one without a cord(he said gas but after a lot of researching I decided to get him this one instead)- it runs on an lithium-ion battery.

Here is Mickey's birthday card for John- Mickey LOVES Hoops and YoYo.

And here was Jeffrey's idea for John: a leaf blower. He told me that's what he wanted to get Daddy about a month before and since I had no ideas I went with it! Researching that on amazon is what led me to also get him the matching trimmer-(same company and they share the same battery). John LOVED it- he said it was one of the best presents we've ever given him! Apparently he really wanted one! So good job Jeffrey!

And then this is what went on for the next 2 hours. :)

We had a nice day together and then went to our friend's house for a cook-out/ double birthday party which was lots of fun.

apple picking- and there were actually apples this time!

I don't know if you remember but we tried to go to this orchard last year and we got... 4 apples.

Apparently it was an "off year". Well we tried it again and there were tons of apples! I was so happy because: 1. they're organic 2. they are free 3. it's fun!

this is what Mickey climbing a tree looks like(also imagine screaming)

my neck hurt HORRIBLY this past week and especially this day- I don't know what happened but I woke up Sunday morning in the worst pain since childbirth. 4 motrin didn't even make a slight difference! So apple picking was quite a feat considering I couldn't move my head.

look at all of these apples! John kept telling me we were getting too many but I wanted more!

Jeffrey said- "if these are free why do we spend all our money on apples all the time?" :)

by the way- I spent hours on Monday morning making applesauce-

the final product: about 2 cups worth.

from ballet to dirt pit

I just had to share this... Wednesday after ballet class Mary Beth went outside in her tutu to help her daddy dig up the giant dirt pit that our pool had been sitting on(so that he could plant some grass there). It just struck me how 15 minutes before I had been watching her do pirouettes and now she was performing hard labor and getting dirty! That is so Mary Beth...

I guess she decided to put some gloves on:

I love her determined face. Jeffrey has the same one.

I thought I'd throw in some pics of Bella. Of course she had to play right in the dirt too!

Notice only the girls were out getting dirty and working hard- the boys were inside playing legos. They though better of their decision later though when Daddy gave Mary Beth $2 for helping him! :)